KOTA KINABALU, July 21 – Senallang assemblyman Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal’s bid to table a motion on the Sulu sultanate heirs' claims to Sabah failed for a second time this week.
Sabah state assembly Speaker Datuk Kadzim M. Yahya dismissed the application today, insisting that Section 23A(2) of the House Standing Order does not allow a motion that was previously dismissed be brought up for tabling again.
Shafie, who brought up his application for the motion before Question Time this morning, argued that Kadzim’s reason for the initial rejection on Monday was the lack of a 24-hour notice, but this was not the case today.
But Kadzim countered, saying that the House rules explicitly state that rejected motions cannot be debated.
And then their verbal exchange got heated.
"I know what you are getting at. You are saying that it should be debated now because I previously rejected on the grounds of a lack of notice. So now you applied ahead of time to move a motion to table again.
"But according to Section 23A (2), irrespective of grounds, a rejected motion cannot be brought up,” said Kadzim.
Shafie first submitted an emergency motion three days ago to get the state assembly to debate the Sulu sultanate heirs' insistence that they have a right to payments for Sabah, a territory their ancestor once owned.
Kadzim first rejected that motion the grounds that it was not submitted within 24 hours.
Shafie told the House today that he had submitted another motion last Monday evening, which had been rejected again.
"I submitted the motion to discuss the safety of the state which is at stake. This is not about Azerbaijan, or the decision made in Spain. This is a safety threat to the state. We are asking for our autonomy.
"We don’t want any untoward incident to happen here. Once they have money ... let’s not wait for something to happen. This is a matter of our sovereignty and there are lives possibly at stake,” the Parti Warisan president said, pushing for the House to discuss the issue that many see as jeopardising Malaysia’s sovereignty.
Chided again by Kadzim today, Shafie said he wanted it on record that the state assembly Speaker had rejected the motion.
"I have to be persistent when it comes to the interest of the state,” he said.
Last Monday, Kadzim had advised Shafie to raise the matter in Parliament, saying that as it involves the federal government, the issue should be handled at the federal level.
However, on the same day, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun also rejected the motion submitted by Kota Belud MP Isnaraissah Munirah on the Sulu claim.
The decades-long controversial issue made a splash when it was reported that two Petronas Luxembourg-registered subsidiaries, Petronas Azerbaijan (Shah Deniz) and Petronas South Caucasus, were seized on Monday following a Paris arbitration court ruling in March that Malaysia was obliged to pay the Sulu "descendants” at least RM62.59 billion.
The seizure of the holding companies, reportedly valued at about RM8.87 billion, was part of legal efforts by the purported heirs, who have been seeking compensation for land in Sabah, which they claimed their ancestor had leased to a British trading company in 1878.
The arbitration was initiated by the purported heirs and "successors” of Sultan Jamalul Kiram II against the Malaysian government through international arbitration proceedings in Madrid, Spain.
On July 12, the Paris Court of Appeal allowed the Malaysian government’s application to stay the enforcement of the final award on claims by parties claiming to be heirs and successors-in-interest to Sultan Jamalul Kiram III.
